Austral English Part 180
"Australasia, or Australia, consists of the continent of New Holland, or Australia, the island of Tasmania, or Van Diemen's Land, and the islands of New Zealand."
[In the map accompanying the above work `Australia' is printed across the whole continent, and in smaller type `New Holland' stretches along the Western half, and `New South Wales' along the whole of the Eastern.]
(q.v).
(q.v.).
.
, in South Island.
1873. `Catalogue of Vienna Exhibition':
"Ngaio: wood light, white and tough, used for gun-stocks."
1876. J. C. Crawford, `Transactions of New Zealand Inst.i.tute,' vol. ix. art. xiv. p. 206:
"A common New Zealand shrub, or tree, which may be made useful for shelter, viz. the Ngaio."
1880. W. Colenso, `Transactions of New Zealand Inst.i.tute,'
vol. xiii. art. i. p. 33:
"The fruits of several species of Rubus, and of the Ngaio (Myoporum laetum), were also eaten, especially by children."
1892. `Otago Witness,' Nov. 3, `Native Trees':
"Myoporum Laetum (Ngaio). This is generally called kio by colonists. It is a very rapid-growing tree for the first five or six years after it has been planted. They are very hardy, and like the sea air. I saw these trees growing at St. Kilda, near Melbourne, thirty years ago."
(q.v.).
. an Australian black or aboriginal.
[Of course an incorrect use. He is not a negro, any more than the Hindoo is.]
1874. M. C., `Explorers,' p. 25:
"I quite thought the n.i.g.g.e.rs had made an attack."
1891. `The Argus,' Nov. 7, p. 13, col. 5:
"The natives of Queensland are nearly always spoken of as `n.i.g.g.e.rs' by those who are brought most directly in contact with them."
. (1) Name given in New Zealand to hard blackstones found at the Blue Spur and other mining districts. They are prized for their effectiveness in aiding cement-washing. The name is applied in America to a round piece of basic igneous rock.
(2) Name used in Queensland for blocks of coral above water.
1876. Capt. J. Moresby, R. N., `Discoveries and Surveys in New Guinea,' pp. 2-3:
"The gigantic Barrier Reef is submerged in parts, generally to a shallow depth, and traceable only by the surf that breaks on it, out of which a crowd of `n.i.g.g.e.r heads,' black points of coral rock, peep up in places ..."
1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,'
p. 111:
"Abundantly on the Queensland coast, especially on the coral reefs, where all the outstanding blocks of coral (n.i.g.g.e.r-heads) are covered with them."
. English bird-name, applied in Australia to the following species--
Large-tailed Nightjar-- Caprimulgus macrurus, Hors.
Little N.-- AEgotheles novae-hollandiae, Gould.
Spotted N.-- Eurostopodus guttatus, Vig. and Hors.
White-throated N.-- E. albogularis, Vig. and Hors.
.
1843. `An Ordinance for imposing a tax on Raupo Houses, Session II. No. xvii. of the former legislative Council of New Zealand':
[From A. Domett's collection of Ordinances, 1850.]
"Section 2... . there shall be levied in respect of every building constructed wholly or in part of raupo, nikau, toitoi, wiwi, kakaho, straw or thatch of any description [ ... L20]."
1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand,' c. i.
p. 270:
[The house was] "covered with thick coating of the leaves of the nikau (a kind of palm) and tufts of gra.s.s."
1854. W. Golder, `Pigeons' Parliament,' [Note] p. 75:
"The necho or neko is a large tree-like plant known elsewhere as the mountain cabbage."
1862. `All the Year Round,' `From the Black Rocks on Friday,'
May 17, No. 160:
"I found growing, as I expected, amongst the trees abundance of the wild palm or nikau. The heart of one or two of these I cut out with my knife. The heart of this palm is about the thickness of a man's wrist, is about a foot long, and tastes not unlike an English hazel-nut, when roasted on the ashes of a fire. It is very nutritious."
1882. T. H. Potts, `Out in the Open,' p. 86:
"The pale green pinnate-leaved nikau."
1888. Ca.s.sell's `Picturesque Australasia,' vol. iii.
p. 210:
"With the exception of the kauri and the nekau-palm nearly every tree which belongs to the colony grows in the `seventy-mile bush' of Wellington."
, h.e.l.ler, a species of prawn.
. No doubt there is an allusion to the bad spirits frequently sold at bush public-houses, but if a teetotaler had invented the word he could not have invented one involving stronger condemnation.